[b]Birmingham named nation's rudest city
Quote:
LONDON (AFP) - Don't expect a helping hand in Birmingham -- after an opinion poll showed that residents there are the rudest people in Britain.
"Brummies" were the least likely to pass a series of courtesy tests such as holding the door for someone behind them or stopping to help a person who had dropped their shopping, according to the study by the Reader's Digest.
In contrast, Newcastle residents were most polite, followed by inhabitants of Liverpool and Exeter in the south east.
The Reader's Digest sent undercover "civility inspectors" to eight British cities to test them with a variety of politeness trials.
As well as door-holding and help with dropped shopping, they checked whether shop assistants were well-mannered enough to say "please" and "thank you" and whether drivers thanked those who let them merge into rush hour traffic.
Britons overall were polite 59 percent of the time, while Newcastle residents passed 77 percent of the tests.
In contrast, Birmingham natives managed to show common courtesy on only 43 percent of occasions.
While women were generally more polite than men, chivalry is not dead: 88 percent of men held the door open for a female researcher, compared with only 44 percent of women.
"(Prime Minister)
Tony Blair has made the rebuilding of respect in communities an official priority," said Readers Digest editor-in-chief Katherine Walker.
"Given some of the results of this test, he has his work cut out."
The other cities tested were Cardiff, London, Southampton and Edinburgh.
"Brummies" were the least likely to pass a series of courtesy tests such as holding the door for someone behind them or stopping to help a person who had dropped their shopping, according to the study by the Reader's Digest.
In contrast, Newcastle residents were most polite, followed by inhabitants of Liverpool and Exeter in the south east.
The Reader's Digest sent undercover "civility inspectors" to eight British cities to test them with a variety of politeness trials.
As well as door-holding and help with dropped shopping, they checked whether shop assistants were well-mannered enough to say "please" and "thank you" and whether drivers thanked those who let them merge into rush hour traffic.
Britons overall were polite 59 percent of the time, while Newcastle residents passed 77 percent of the tests.
In contrast, Birmingham natives managed to show common courtesy on only 43 percent of occasions.
While women were generally more polite than men, chivalry is not dead: 88 percent of men held the door open for a female researcher, compared with only 44 percent of women.
"(Prime Minister)
Tony Blair has made the rebuilding of respect in communities an official priority," said Readers Digest editor-in-chief Katherine Walker.
"Given some of the results of this test, he has his work cut out."
The other cities tested were Cardiff, London, Southampton and Edinburgh.
Edited, Sat Oct 22 13:02:23 2005 by Elderon
